Savannah Guthrie says she’s ‘in agony’ in 1st interview amid search for mom – National

Today show host Savannah Guthrie said her family is in “agony” as the search for her mother Nancy Guthrie enters its eighth week.

Savannah said “someone needs to do the right thing” and come forward with information to help the investigation into the disappearance of her 84-year-old mother, who was last seen at her home just outside the city on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the next day.

“We are in agony. It is unbearable and to think of what she went through,” a tearful Savannah said in a portion of her first interview with Hoda Kotb shared on the Today show Wednesday.

“I wake up every night in the middle of the night and in the darkness I imagine her terror and it is unthinkable but those thoughts demand to be thought,” Savannah said. “And I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.”

Both Savannah and Kotb were crying during the brief portion of the interview aired on Wednesday. Kotb, Savannah’s former co-host, has returned to Today while her former colleague has been away.

While speaking about the interview, Kotb said there is a “desperation and also a steeliness about Savannah.”

“She’s hoping that somebody, whoever this person is, will see something and say something. And as you’ll see in the coming days, she talks about so many things,” Kotb added of the interview, set to air Thursday and Friday on the Today show.

It is Savannah’s first interview since her mother was reported missing on Feb. 1. Based on security footage, authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped or otherwise taken against her will.

Savannah’s first interview comes after she issued a plea to the residents of Tucson, Ariz., in the hopes of sparking new leads in the disappearance of her mother.

The Today show co-host shared a family statement on her Instagram account Sunday, writing, “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring from neighbors, friends and the people of Tucson. We are all family now.”

“We continue to believe it is Tucsonans, and the greater Southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding resolution in this case. Someone knows something. It’s possible a member of this community has information that they do not even realize is significant,” the statement continued.

“We desperately ask this community for renewed attention to our mom’s case — please consult footage, journal notes, text messages, observations, or conversations that in retrospect may hold significance. No detail is too small. It may be the key.

“We miss our mom with every breath, and we cannot be in peace until she is home. We cannot grieve; we can only ache and wonder. Our focus is solely on finding her and bringing her home.

“We want to celebrate her beautiful and courageous life, but we cannot do that until she is brought to a final place of rest. Thank you for continuing to pray without ceasing.”

The statement from the Guthrie family comes after a KVOA News 4 Tucson special, titled Bring Her Home: The Disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, aired on Saturday.

Nancy was reported missing on Feb. 1. Authorities believe the 84-year-old was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. The FBI released surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door on the night she vanished.

Savannah visited the NBC Today show studio in New York City for the first time since her mother’s disappearance on March 5. The show said she plans to return to the air at some point but “remains focused right now supporting her family and working to help bring Nancy home.”

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